Karan Rastogi Thread ...

[PKBasu]

Karan Rastogi, at 16 years and 6 months old, is India's most promising junior player since Leander Paes -- and promises to be a future world-class pro in the firm tradition of Indian tennis that runs through Ghouse Mohammed and Dilip Bose in the 1940s, Naresh Kumar and (especially) Ramanathan Krishnan in the 1950s, Krishnan again in the 1960s along with Jaidip Mukerjea and Premjit Lall, the Amritraj brothers in the 1970s along with Sashi Menon, Ramesh Krishnan in the 1980s, and Leander Paes and (in doubles) Mahesh Bhupathi in the 1990s.
Karan will be ranked among the top 50 junior singles players going into Wimbledon and likely seeded 4th or 5th in doubles (with partner Somdev Dev Varman). But even more importantly, Karan showed he already belongs among the men, with three magnificent wins in the qualifying rounds of one of the Challengers in India this year (including one over a player who was ranked just outside the top 100 two years and is in the Wimbledon men's main draw this year too). Though that was the only pro tournament Karan has played in, it gave him 3 ATP points. He is now ranked 1132 on the ATP computer, and this thread will chart his progress to the to-100, hopefully within the next 30 months if not sooner!
(Meanwhile, Jay has some fantastic archived material on this kid's progress since he was 13+; I hope you can put something here from your extensive records of this kid that you "discovered" for us over 3 years ago, Jay).

[jayakris]

Karan moved up to #12 in doubles and #50 in singles with the doubles title and the singles semi in Frankfurt.

He is the second youngest player in the world top-50 in singles!!!!!

Jay

[PKBasu]

Karan has a tough match against the Israeli player Sela (ranked #327 on the ATP pro ranking) in R1 of the Boys singles at Wimbledon.
He has beaten three similarly ranked players at the Delhi Challenger, so this should be a good match, with Karan in with a solid chance of causing an upset. (Incidently, Jamie Delgado -- who lost to Karan in the qualifying rounds of the Delhi Challenger -- took a set off Andre Agassi in the Wimbledon singles first round at Wimbledon this week).

[jayakris]

Heck yeah. Dud Sela better watchout .. The Karan is coming after you!

Jay

[jayakris]

He made a nice turn around after being a set a break down today to push it to the 3rd and had some serious fight in the 3rd set (saved 5 break points in a row in the 4th and 6th games before finally dropping serve in the 6th game of the 3rd). Great job against a really good high seed (Sela had won the Israel ATP satellite earlier this year, so he is pretty good, though not sure how good on grass).

[R1] K.Rastogi l. #3 Dudi Sela (ISR.ATP#367), 26 63 36

Go Karan, win the doubles now!

Jay

[PKBasu]

Tough loss for Karan. I think you're right -- the waiting probably did him in at the start of the match. I think the extra week on clay was also partly to blame!
Karan nonetheless has a bright future, if he can play like this even without the proper preparation against the 3rd-ranked junior in the world.

[PKBasu]

Karan was off the circuit for a couple of months (partly because there weren't too many good junior tournaments going on). But he spent much of that period at the Bolletieri academy in Florida, and the effect of that stint is already evident in his game. He has come back in style this week with a round thrashing of the world's 25th-ranked junior 62 61 (especially impressive because he had lost thrice to this player in the past twelve months). Not yet 17, Karan is definitely the real thing. Go Karan!!

[Rishav]

best o' luck karan- BTW , guys- who do u think has better potential- Sania or Karan? Tell me please?

[nkoth]

Both seem like the real deal -- but Karan seems to have the edge at the moment. He's now able to knock off top junior players in convincing style, whereas Sania still has problems against the top junior players...

Be that as it may, though, both (along with the rest of the youngster contingent heading to the US Open) should continue to just get better and better with more experience, training, and guidance.

The future looks good for Indian tennis!

-neil

[jayakris]

Hmmm, Neil. You are the first one to have the guts to say that ... I don't know if it is that claer that Karan is ahead of Sania, but there is some point in what you are saying..

Jay

[gvhvhg]

WOW YES!!!!!!!!!!! what fantastic junior careers!!!!! I dont mean to kill your party but this doesnt mean ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!

look at leander paes and Ramesh Krishnan both won grand slams in their juniour careers, and one made the third round of the usopen and the other the quaterfinals. And then look at the opposite Pete Sampras NEVER won a juniour tournament..........................

With all due respect to our juniors who i hope will be world beaters....they have the potential Karan, and Sania. WInning in the juniors does not guarantee success in the big time.

So i end this contradicting my earlier statements
Good luck Karan and Sania!!!

[Rishav]

interesting. I mean i've been reading sania's potential since the past 3 years but heard v.less of karan. But nicve to know we have someone else n that category

[PKBasu]

Rishav, Dr Jayakrishnan was among the first to alert the world about Karan's potential. As a result of Jay's wonderful scouting, we have been following the guy's career since he was 13. Jay, for instance, pointed out a couple of years ago that we had the highest-ranked 14-year-old male and female tennis player in the world (at least as far as junior rankings go)!
Both have made good progress and have a couple of years left in the junior ranks. I'd say Sania is the more consistent performer, while Karan is able to pull off bigger wins over tough opponents but lacks consistency. At the junior level, the precise results are less important than developing the right skills. I think both are making the right sort of progress, although there are a large number of female players (many younger than her) who have progressed even faster than Sania. On the men's side, 16 is really a young age, but 16 is not so young on the female side! Nonetheless, the Belgians and the Williamses have shown that it is better to mature slowly and reach the world level when you are 18-19. I wouldn't give up on either Sania or Karan. I'm near-certain that both will at least be top-50 pros; whether they take the final leap to the top 20 or higher depends on how they are managed over the next 3-4 years.

This week incidentally, Karan is doing pretty well in a Grade 1 ITF event, where he's made the singles semifinal beating a couple of top-30 ranked juniors along the way.

[Kumar]

Is Karan physically strong? If some one could let me know his physical attributes, height , etc, that would be great.

I too feel that Karan has made a lot of progress in the last few months. Go Karan

[shashi]

Karan definetely is the best junior boy to emerge since LP.He needs to start winning the early rounds of junior grand slams soon.PossiblY a quarter final appearance to start with atleast, in the AO.In fact Leander won junior wimbledon immediately after celebrating his 17th birthday.
Karan,from his results so far,particularly in the one challenger even t that he played in which he troubled the likes of Jamie Delgado and Arvind Parmar,looks as if his game is more equipped for the rigours of the singles game than LP and could be a good bet for a regular place in the top-50 of mens singles world rankings.
Even in the losses that Karan has suffered in the juniore grand slams against mostly top 10-20 players,he has managed to play 3 sets.As for Sania,despite all the media focus on her achievements,has lost very early in the slams and that too tamely.So Karan it seems has the edge over Sania.